SITECH Manuals and Documentation

There are 5 documents for the Sitech system that provide user information on the system. All of them are available for download in the "attachments" section below:

There are two documents available for download below called "Quick Start
Guides". There is one for Equatorial Mounts, and one for Alt/Az mounts.

These QuickStart Guides are the first of a series of Quickstart Guides planned to be written. These address "BASIC" Operations, and are intended to get you running and enjoying the basics of your mount as soon as possible without delving into a lot of the bells and whistles that are also available. Since Equatorial and Alt/Az mounts have some differences in how they are operated in Sitewchexe (especially for operations without a PC), there are two versions, one for Equ mounts, and one for Alt/Az mounts.

NOTE: You may run across terms and configuration activities that you are not familiar with if you start with the QuickStart Guides. If that happens, read the Manuals and the Release Notes described in the following paragraphs.....

The next set of Quickstart Guides will address "INTERMEDIATE" Operations, that will include such things as building a model of your mount for greatly improved performance, Scripted Operations, and building and using Periodic Error Correction curves, etc.

The final set of QuickStart Guides will be for "ADVANCED" Operations, like Satellite Tracking, etc.

Two of the documents available for download below are detailed manuals: a SETUP manual, and an OPERATIONS manual. Both are available for download in the "Attachments" section below.

The SETUP manual covers how to set the system up and use the very handy configuration program ServoConfig.exe. It also includes some design considerations if you are building or converting a system, and has a lot of information on circuits, etc. in the appendices. Rev a was posted Oct 19, 2009 and contains examples of a "geared up" encoder, and the pinouts for using a Sky Commander.

The OPERATIONS manual covers how to USE the system with and without an attached computer. Any system as capable as the Sitech system has a lot of bells and whistles to learn about. So, this manual is written in a building block approach, starting with how to use the system without a computer attached. Then it progresses to basic operations using a computer running the powerful ASCOM Driver SitechExe.exe. Finally, the "advanced" capabilities are addressed that are available when using SitechExe.

We recommend you skim read both manuals just to know what is in them, and then read for content starting with the SETUP Manual, followed by the OPERATIONS manual.

Both detailed manuals are in the process of being updated since there have been a lot of great changes since they were last published. To provide information on how to use the changes, thre is a document called "Release Notes"

There were some significant changes and a lot of additional capabilities added starting with Sitechexe.exe version 0.90a. Since the work to update the manuals is very significant, in the interim we published a set of "Release Notes" that address most of the changes introduced with v0.90a. The Release Notes are also available for download in the Attachments section below. The information in the Release notes is VERY important in understanding how to operate Sitechexe!

Recurring SitechServo Listserver note on latest links:

Every two weeks a note is automatically sent out to all SitechServo Listserver subscribers that contains the links to the latest Software, firmware and documentation. A copy of the contents of that recurring links update note is included for download in the attachments section below. The filename contains the date of the file.

July 8, 2010 update: A file named: Gemini-Sitech pinout.bmp was provided by Richard Luben (Thanks Richard!). This will allow users to build a conversion cable to use their Gemini servo motors with a Sitech controller, making converting from Gemini to Sitech a very simple change for Losmandy G-11's or G-8's. Thispinout diagram will be incorporated in the update to the Manuals.

May 15, 2012 update: Some users noted that the list of download files seems garbled below. That apparently happens with some older browsers such as IE7. The page setup uses Google Web Page design, which simply doesn't show well on older browsers. It should be fine on Chrome, FireFox and IE8.

IMPORTANT NOTE FOR DOWNLOADING FILES: It is HIGHLY suggested that you do not click on the filename to download the file. This website seems to alter the file for previewing when you click on the filename, and that can cause the pdf file to not be able to be saved and then opened locally. So, Click on the filename to simply view the file. However, to DOWNLOAD the file, click on the DOWN ARROW on the right side of the line the filename is on....